OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) and KPIs (Key Performance Indicators), Key Differences
While OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) and KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) both measure performance, they serve fundamentally different purposes:
KPIs monitor the current health and steady-state of a business, while OKRs drive change, growth, and innovation.
OKR vs KPI: Importance and Impact in 2026
OKR vs KPI: What’s the Difference – Key Differences at a Glance Feature OKRs (Objectives & Key Results)
KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) Purpose Drive change and transformation Monitor health and consistency
Focus Outcome-oriented (Where do we go?) Output-oriented (How are we doing?) Timeframe Iterative cycles (typically quarterly)
Continuous and long-term Nature Ambitious, “stretch” goals Realistic, attainable benchmarks Origin Often collaborative (top-down & bottom-up) Typically management-led (top-down)
Understanding the Roles KPIs (The Dashboard): Think of these as the gauges on a car’s dashboard, such as the fuel level or speedometer. They tell you if the “engine” is running smoothly. Common examples include monthly recurring revenue (MRR), customer churn rate, or website uptime.
OKRs (The Roadmap): These represent your destination and the landmarks along the way. An OKR identifies a specific problem to solve or a new territory to reach.
Objective: A qualitative, inspiring statement of what you want to achieve (e.g., “Become the market leader in the UK”).
Key Results: 3–5 measurable metrics that prove you’ve reached that objective (e.g., “Acquire 500 new enterprise clients”).
How They Work Together The most effective organizations do not choose between them; they use both in a complementary system.
0KPIs signal the need for an OKR: If a KPI shows a negative trend (e.g., “Support response time has increased to 48 hours”), it becomes the trigger to set an OKR to fix it (e.g., “Objective: Restore world-class support speed”).
KPIs can be Key Results: A specific KPI target often serves as a Key Result within a larger strategic Objective.
Maintenance vs. Growth: KPIs safeguard the “business as usual” (BAU) while OKRs push the team to achieve breakthrough results beyond standard performance.
Integration between BASE24-eps and the Universal Payments Framework (UPF) is a core part of ACI Worldwide’s strategy to bridge legacy payment systems with modern, real-time payment capabilities. The UP Framework acts as a bridge, allowing financial institutions to orchestrate diverse payment types and channels while protecting their existing investment in BASE24-eps infrastructure.
Key Aspects of the Integration
Investment Protection: The UP Framework allows existing BASE24 customers to continue using their current systems for some functions while incrementally adding new payment types and volumes through the UP Framework. This approach eliminates the need for a complete “rip and replace” of legacy systems.
Modernization and Flexibility: The integration with UPF allows banks to rapidly introduce new payment methods, adhere to new network schemes (like real-time payments), and integrate with new partners through configuration rather than custom coding.
Unified Retail Payments: UP Retail Payments is ACI’s comprehensive solution that combines the strengths of BASE24-eps (a market-leading retail payment platform) and the UP Framework (which orchestrates all aspects of payments processing) into a single, end-to-end platform.
Data Protection & Compliance: The UPF is used in conjunction with data security solutions (like Comforte’s SecurDPS) to tokenize sensitive cardholder data before it is passed to BASE24-eps applications or stored in logs, helping institutions meet PCI DSS compliance requirements.
Role-Based Expertise: The integration is an area of specialized technical expertise in the payment industry, with job roles focusing on the implementation, customization, configuration, and support of both BASE24-eps and UPF modules.
In essence, the UPF provides a flexible, open architecture that extends the life and capabilities of BASE24-eps, enabling financial institutions to manage traditional and emerging payment demands within a unified ecosystem.
What is BASE24-eps?
BASE24-eps is a comprehensive solution for acquiring, authenticating, routing, switching, and authorizing card- and non-card-based financial transactions through various channels.
BASE24-eps is designed to:
Increase the profitability of payment processing by enabling a set of common transaction services to support multiple channels and different types of transactions
Offer organizations greater flexibility with built-in support for all major card types, devices, national and regional switches, international payment schemes and host systems
Create a comprehensive view of customers and ensure consistent, high-quality customer service across different points of contact
Reduce organizations’ total cost of ownership through complete platform independence
Give organizations the options to deploy on premise, in their own private or public cloud, or in a secure, cloud-based environment managed by ACI